You're asking the wrong people, Ken, because you should know, when it comes to a choice between people and cats, we usually choose cats!
Seriously, only you and your girlfriend can work these things out. Me, no, I don't think you're biting off too much and in two weeks they're going to be more independent and in a few weeks after that, at 12 weeks, they're going to be ready to go to their new homes. And I totally don't see the problem in keeping one or even two of them, but then I would say that, wouldn't I? And I have no real idea of your schedule and other commitments. Have you sat down and really talked out the commitment you're making right now in terms of time and money and distraction from studies, etc, and whether it's possible for you guys to continue and, if not, if there's someone else in your circle of family, friends and neighbours who could give a hand and/or babysit occasionally? You would need to manage your time sensibly and if you're both working AND studying right now, that might be hard or impossible to do. (On the plus side, it's a good skill to master, as long as there are enough hours in the day to fit everything in.)
'Letting the professionals raise them' sounds good but in practice, every shelter as well as the SPCA relies on an army of volunteers to foster and hand-rear kittens who don't have their mum -- or even when they do -- because of the four-hourly feeds, because they are susceptible to infections etc in the shelter from other cats and just because it is a much better start for them to start off in a home with a loving eye looking out for them. Hopefully the SPCA or whatever other shelter is in your area will have enough volunteers to foster all the kittens they are responsible for right now but there is a possibility that they may not. I'm not trying to scare you but you should discuss that thoroughly with any shelter you may be thinking of giving them up to. If they get overloaded in kitten season, would the kittens be put down? That would be my very first question and if the answer is yes, I would be looking for, as everyone else says, a no-kill shelter.
I think the best thing you can do at this point may be to ring round the shelters you may be thinking of taking them too and just find out exactly what the story is with all of them, then visit any shelter you are thinking of taking them to. Go together so you can both see whether you would be happy with this option. I also think any shelter worth its salt will probably try to persuade you to keep raising them because that's three more other kittens they can put their resources towards and save, and because anyone can see how much you care about them. Good luck! Yes, hand-raising kittens is a labour-intensive commitment for at least three months. Yes, you also need to make sure that your studies won't suffer. (It's all good experience for parenthood later on though! And, personally, I just melt when I see a guy caring so much for little helpless animals, it means they're a keeper!)
Posted 2 years ago by jcat #
